If 70 to 80 senators vote for the bipartisan bill — which some in the Senate are aiming for — the House would barely feel pressure to take up the bill. Most conservatives instead would see passing the legislation as an act of mass stupidity.

“If you looked at my campaign, it’s the people that have been here — the career politicians — that have led us to where we are at or failed to prevent” a broken immigration system, said freshman Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Fla.), adding that if “100 of them over there” voted for the bill, it “won’t help me.”

It’s easy and, indeed, common to dismiss House members as a bunch of political novices who will fold under the intense pressure of public opinion. Gallup released a poll Wednesday that found 87 percent of Americans support a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants — the heart of the Senate’s bill — showing that public opinion leans heavily toward the upper chamber’s plan.

But the truth is most House Republicans don’t care. They view the Senate — and their colleagues, including Republicans — with intense distrust. They have been jammed by the Senate time and time again. Recently, they were forced to pass the Senate’s fiscal cliff deal, which raised taxes on the rich. Gerrymandering means the political realities of 2012 haven’t caught up with House members. The Senate is operating in a different political environment, where bipartisan agreements are viewed favorably. In the House, the idea of a two-party solution to a problem as thorny as immigration is met with scoffs in many quarters.

“Remember what M. Stanton Evans said about that,” McClintock said, referring to the conservative writer. “He said there are two parties, there’s the evil party and stupid party. There’s always that corollary that when they get together with a bipartisan solution, it ends up being something evil and stupid.”

The size of the bill — and the fact that it tackles a tangle of issues together — reminds Republicans of President Barack Obama’s health care law.

Conversations throughout the House Republican Conference — with the people that elect Speaker John Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy — lay bare a reality diametrically different from the conventional wisdom that’s led people to believe that the Senate bill could pass muster in the House.